12 for 2012 - 12 for 2012 is an ECS “read of the field,” built on our scrutiny of new reports and research, and our analysis of emerging drivers of change. The 12 policy areas do not represent an exhaustive list of the critical issues for the coming year, nor is this report intended to dictate your education policy priorities for 2012. Rather, 12 for 2012 is intended to stimulate thinking around how best to craft the “2.0” of powerful policy across the states. (ECS, 2012)...

Responding to Opt Out Requests: The Opportunity for State Boards - Mixed responses to parents who want to opt their children out of testing represent a missed opportunity for states to communicate the tests' importance and the consequences of a failure to assess all students. Standardized tests can help districts determine how well their schools serve subgroups and can help parents and schools understand how well individual children are progressing. To minimize testing, boards can encourage districts to search for overlap in state and school-issued assessments.(National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), July 2015)...

Teacher Leadership: The Pathway to Common Core Success - Teacher leadership can play a big role in ensuring the success of the Common Core. This paper describes districts throughout the country that smoothed Common Core's path by involving teachers in various ways, including using them in district and school governance, giving them special assignments, giving them time for collaboration, and having them write, develop and choose instructional materials. (Andrew Amore, Nichole M. Hoeflich and Kaitlin Pennington, Center for American Progress, April 2015)...

Getting College and Career Ready During State Transition Toward the Common Core State Standards - Using longitudinal administrative data from Kentucky, an early adopter of the CCSS, researchers followed three cohorts of students from the end of the 8th grade to the end of the 11th grade and found that students exposed to the CCSS — including students in high- and low-poverty schools—made faster progress in learning than similar students who were not exposed to the standards. (Zeyu Xu and Kennan Cepa, CALDER, March 2015)...

Common Core and America's High-Achieving Students - How will Common Core State Standards affect gifted students? The author cites four key points: Don't let the Core be an excuse to ditch gifted services. State and local leaders should get rid of policies that hurt gifted and talented students and strengthen those that help them. Schools should work harder to make differentiation "real." And schools should make use of existing materials that help teachers adapt the Core for gifted students. (Jonathan A. Plucker, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, February 2015)...

Getting Common Core Right: What We've Learned - Looking at implementation of the Common Core across the United States, a coalition advised taking time before high stakes decisions are made based on early implementation. They saw three successful strategies: engaging a broad community from the start, separating standards from assessments and realizing implementation is a multi-year process that requires attention to instructional materials, lessons, high-quality professional development and community engagement. (Learning First Alliance, January 2015)
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The Next Test: Are States Ready for the New Common Core Assessments? - Almost every state in the country will test students against new standards this year. Are they ready? In this brief, the author found states do appear ready, though having enough broadband to test large numbers of students at once is a challenge. She recommends preparing the public for lower scores, and believes states that have committed to them should stand their ground on keeping PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments. (Naomi Chudowsky, Center for American Progress, January 2015)...

Common Core State Standards in 2014: Curriculum and Professional Development at the District Level - This report, based on a survey of districts in Common Core-adopting states, examines efforts to develop and implement CCSS-aligned curricula and provide professional development to teachers and principals. More than 80 percent of surveyed districts report they have already begun teaching CCSS-aligned curricula, and at least two-thirds report that the vast majority of teachers and principals have participated in CCSS-related professional development. (Diane Stark Rentner and Nancy Kober, Center on Education Policy, October 2014)...

Common Core State Standards in 2014: District Implementation of Consortia-Developed Assessments - States that have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will begin testing students' progress later in this school year. A survey of districts found the vast majority are making plans to target support services for students who may need additional assistance to pass the tests and most foresaw technological challenges. (Diane Stark Rentner and Nancy Kober, Center on Education Policy, October 2014)...

Districts' Perceptions, Progress, and Challenge (Common Core State Standards in 2014) - Ninety percent of district leaders in states that have adopted the Common Core State Standards agree the new standards are more rigorous than their state's previous standards in math and English language arts. In addition, about three quarters of them believe the Common Core will improve students' skills. (Diane Stark Rentner and Nancy Kober, Center on Education Policy, October 2014)...

International Benchmarking: State and National Education Performance Standards - A look at considerable variance in state performance standards exposes a large gap in expectations between states with the highest standards and those with the lowest, as much as three to four grade levels. Using international benchmarking to compare what students are expected to learn, this report also found success under No Child Left Behind is largely related to setting low performance standards (states with the highest numbers of proficient students had the lowest standards). (Gary W. Phillips, American Institutes for Research, September 2014)...

Reform Integration Framework and Resource Guide - The Reform Integration Framework and Resource Guide aims to show how state and local education agencies can help educators connect the dots among college- and career-readiness standards, aligned assessments and educator evaluation and support systems. It offers: a framework to identify priorities for integrating reforms; more than 50 resources contributed by states, districts and organizations that can be adapted for local use; and spotlights on integration occurring in states with varying contexts, including Colorado and Massachusetts.(Reform Support Network, October 2014)...

The Cognitive Science Behind the Common Core - The Common Core is grounded in cognitive science and incorporates practices that have been proven to improve student learning. This report finds the Core promotes learning in key ways: scaffolding student learning to provide a strong knowledge base, holding students to high expectations, incorporating latest research on how students learn to read, combining traditional math teaching methods and conceptual strategies, increasing opportunities for peer collaboration and promoting problem- and project-based learning. (Max Marchitello and Megan Wilhelm, Center for American Progress, September 2014)...

Common Core State Standards & the Transformation of Professional Development - Professional development has been viewed as the "ugly stepchild" of education reform, according to this report. But the Common Core, with its focus on content and instructional shifts that support delivery of that content could be the vehicle to transform professional development. This executive summary links to three briefs. (Education First, August 2014)...

A Compendium of Research on the Common Core State Standards - Fulfilling the need for a synthesis of existing research on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), this compendium will inform future research as well as policy discussions and implementation. Each research summary includes focus, methodology, key findings, a URL where available, or a citation. The research is divided into: communications and public opinion; comparison of CCSS content to wide-scale assessments; content, curriculum and alignment; cost analysis; governance and leadership; implementation; teacher preparation; professional development; testing and assessment. (Kober, Center on Education Policy, August 2014)...

Getting the Facts Straight about Education Data - Three common myths about the Common Core assessment consortia get busted in this brief. The first is that the consortia are federal or require some collected data to be handed over to the federal government. The second is that the consortia won't adequately protect student privacy and will share student data indiscriminately. The third is that such personal questions as family religion and income will be part of the assessments. No, no, no. (Data Quality Campaign, August 2014)
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The Case Against Exit Exams - This report asserts that exit exams could threaten the Common Core, proposing that if states use Core assessments instead of exit exams, millions of students will not graduate given that only 39 percent are ready for college level math and 38 percent are prepared in reading, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. One alternative would be to lower the bar, so that more students graduate but without being college- or career-ready. Authors suggest that the solution is to drop exit exams and use assessments toward final course grades.
(Anne Hyslop, New America Education Policy Program, July 2014)...

National Survey Results - Common Core State Standards - Results of a national survey on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) indicated that, while a large percentage of voters have never heard of the Common Core, when it is explained in simple, neutral language, support soars to a two-thirds majority. "All the dangers that come from being associated with the national Republican brand -- being exclusive, Anglo-only, anti-woman, anti-Hispanic -- are in play here and Republicans would be wise to think of [CCSS] in a broader context," warned the surveyors, McLaughlin & Associates. "Anti-Common Core positions may be inviting in the short-term, but looking to November supporting state standards that elevate school achievement have far more upside." (McLaughlin & Associates, May 2014)
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Coming Together to Raise Achievement: New Assessments for the Common Core State Standards - An updated guide from ETS answers questions concerning the various state assessment Consortia, including Consortia support plans for states and districts. The state Consortia include the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced), two alternate assessment Consortia: the Dynamic Learning Maps Consortium (DLM) and the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC) Consortium. There also is an English language Consortium with several partners working on a next-generation, technology-based English language proficiency assessment that will be ready in the 2015-16 school year. (Nancy Doorey, K-12 Center at ETS, March 2014)...

From the Inside In: An Examination of Common Core Knowledge and Communication in Schools - As states take up the Common Core, this study looked at eight New York City schools - five elementary and three middle schools - to discover who has knowledge about the Common Core and how that knowledge is distributed. Researchers found teachers who were knowledgeable and who engaged in conversations with others about the Core. However, the knowledge was unevenly distributed within grade-level teams and across teams. Those with the most knowledge were sought-after. The knowledgeable faculty also were most likely to seek outside resources. (Jonathan Supovitz, Ryan Fink and Bobbi Newman,Consortium for Policy Research in Education, March 2014)...

A Primer on Common Core-Aligned Assessments - This primer on Common Core assessment is for state policymakers, advocates, educators, and other stakeholders who are transitioning to new systems that measure student achievement under the new standards. Goals of the Common Core are explained and how those goals affect the new assessments. Comparisons are made current state tests, ACT Aspire, PARCC, and SBAC. (Education First, December 2013)...

Closing the Expectations Gap: 2013 Annual Report on the Alignment of State K-12 Policies and Practice with the Demands of College and Careers - This eighth annual 50-state report describes progress–and the lack of progress– in advancing state policies that will equip high school graduates with the knowledge and skills to succeed in college, careers, and citizenship. While all states now have readiness standards, fewer than half require students to learn those standards in time for graduation because they may refuse to take standards-embedded classes. No state has all four CCR prerequisites in standards, graduation requirements, assessments, and accountability. An appendix allows for state-by-state comparisons. (Achieve, November 2013)...

Standardized Testing and the Common Core Standards: You Get What You Pay For? - Tackling the questions of standardized test cost and quality, this report concludes the departure of a few states from testing consortia will have minimum impact on per-pupil cost. For example, the departure of Florida, second-largest member of PARCC, would only mean a per-pupil price increase of 60 cents for remaining states. If all states which are having a debate over the Common Core drop out, costs would still increase by no more than $2 or $3. The author cautions that test quality is crucial: used for high-stakes decisions, they could determine which school to close, which student to hold back, which teacher to fire. He synthesizes test quality into a set of design principles that should support and drive instruction, encourages states to form consortia and Congress to designate $30-$40 for per-pupil testing when it reauthorizes the NCLB. (Matthew M. Chingos, Brown Center on Education Policy at Brooking, October 2013)...

Common Core in the Schools: A First Look at Reading Assignments - No Child Left Behind (NCLB) may have improved math achievement in the early grades, but did little to budge low reading scores. The authors argue that NCLB inspired educators to abandon such classes as science and history to gain time for teaching reading skills while the complexity of assigned texts declined. They hope that the standards- and accountability reform implicit in the Common Core will change that and reading assignments will become more complex. Readers may find recommended high school reading lists interesting. (Timothy Shanahan and Ann Duffett, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, October 2013)...

An Overview of States' Progress and Challenges: Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards - Most states that have adopted the Common Core already say they are are teaching to the standards, at least in some grades and some school districts; all respondents in this survey agreed the standards are more rigorous. Some claim to be implementing them by grade span, or school district or both. A number –nine in math, 10 in English language arts–won’t begin implementing the Core until this fall or later. Many of these states report not having adequate resources to implement effectively. (Center on Education Policy, August 2013)...

Common Core State Standards 101 - Over the long term, the Common Core State Standards are the culmination of a 20-year effort to set expectations for what students should know and be able to do. More recently, in 2009, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers invited state leaders to participate in development of common standards for mathematics and English language arts. An antidote to CCSS anxiety and opposition, this report walks readers through the state CCSS adoption process, assessment development, and range of possible costs. Supporters are listed: teachers, business leaders, military leaders. Keys to implementation are cost-effective assessment, integration with other reforms and sufficient support for teachers and students. (Robert Rothman, Alliance for Excellent Education, August 2013)...

Professionial Development for Teachers and Principals: Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards - All 40 states responding to a survey on implementing Common Score State Standards (CCSS) report that they provide professional development to teachers; 39 provide it to principals. In more than half the states, survey respondents said that a majority of K-12 teachers participated in some CCSS professional development, but fewer states report that very large percentages of their teachers have participated. Twenty-six states said providing professional development and other supports was a major challenge. (Center on Education Policy, August 2013)...

Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards: States Prepare for Common Core Assessments - Most states have taken steps to start assessing students' Common Core State Standards (CCSS) knowledge or will do so before the assessments developed by the two consortia, Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium are ready in school year 2014-15, according to a recent survey. Forty states responded to the survey. Half have begun to prepare teachers to use assessment results and half are working with schools and districts to plan for extra assistance for students who need help passing CCSS exams. Only eight are considering suspending consequences for schools or individuals based on CCSS performance. (Diane Stark Rentner, Center on Education Policy, August 2013)
(Diane Stark Rentner, Center on Education Policy, August 2013)...

Uneven at the Start: Differences in State Track Records Foreshadow Challenges and Opportunities for Common Core - Some states might be more successful in implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) than others. Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the paper compares states' rates of improvement from 2003 to 2011 and their relative performance in 2011. Then they are rated overall and by how subgroups did on the NAEP. While states' past track records don't necessarily predict the future, the author writes that they might foreshadow challenges and strengths. (Natasha Ushomirski, Education Trust, July 2013)...

Improving College Readiness in the Age of Common Core - Short, intensive summer bridge programs between the senior year of high school and college have positive short-term effects which eventually fade. Meanwhile, few students who get a GED move on to a postsecondary institution. MDRC suggests a "bridge" that starts earlier, the summer after high school's junior year, for example, and ends after the first year of college. MDRC also is working with CUNY's LaGuardia Community College to connect GED students with postsecondary education and careers through enhancements to the regular GED curriculum. (MDRC, March 2013)...

The Common Core Meets State Policy: This Changes Almost Everything - Though Mike Kirst’s outline describes the Common Core’s impact on California, it gives an idea of the broad implications for the other 44 participating states and the District of Columbia. The enormity, the complexity of the process is breathtaking. He describes how all key state education policies will change in fundamental ways: assessment, accountability, teacher evaluation, instructional materials, professional development, career and technical education, alignment between early childhood and college– an anxiety attack on six pages. However, he points out the Common Core also offers the possibility of a “great opportunity for improving student attainment” and a “new vision for teaching and learning.” (Mike W. Kirst, Policy Analysis for California Education, March 2013)...

Variation in Children’s Experience of Kindergarten and the Common Core - This paper focuses on the structural elements of the kindergarten experience of American children and the new context of the Common Core standards. This paper will consider how differences in the opportunity to learn through publicly funded kindergarten may affect the potential for children to reach a common set of standards across these differences. Specifically, this paper focuses on structural variations in the provision of kindergarten, including length of school day and age of entry, as well as variation in the preparation of kindergarten teachers. (NAEYC, November 2012)...

Making Good on the College-Ready Promise: The Common Core and Higher Education Engagement MS Word - Education First has worked with the 10 Core to College states in the first year of their efforts to better align the work of the higher education and K12 sectors to implement the Common Core standards. This report highlights some of their early findings, best practices around faculty engagement and some likely next steps in their efforts. (Education First, October 2012)...

Implementing the Common Core Standards in Urban Public Schools - 2012 - Some 87% of urban school districts plan to fully implement Common Core State Standards by the 2014-2015 school year, according to the Council of Great City Schools. The council sent surveys to all 67 members; 36 responded (54%). The survey, which is intended to be the first of a multi-year analysis of CCSS implementation, also found 93% of responding districts plan to have Math CCSS implemented by the 2013-14 school year. More facts, charts, and tables are presented.(Council of the Great City Schools, 2012)...

Education for Life and Work Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century - National Research Council appointed a committee of experts to more clearly define “deeper learning” and “21st century skills,” consider these skills’ importance for positive outcomes in education, work, and other areas of life, address how to teach them, and examine related issues.
The committee found important areas where goals
for deeper learning and 21st century competencies
overlap with the new Common Core State Standards
in English language arts and mathematics and the
NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education. Findings and recommendations are detailed throughout the report. (National Research Council, July 2012)...

Choosing Blindly: Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness and the Common Core - A new report from the Brookings Institution focuses on instruction materials, which, evidence shows, have large effects on student learning. The authors argue that states, with support from the federal government and philanthropic organizations, should collect systematic information on which materials are being used in which schools. (Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, April 2012)...

Instructional Supports: The Missing Piece in State Education Standards - The transition from current state learning standards to college- and career-ready standards being rolled out across the nation is more than a subtle shift. In this paper The Education Trust offers insights about the best ways states can support our nation's educators in their efforts to help students meet high academic standards. (The Education Trust, March 2012)...

U.S. Education Reform and National Security - This report finds that the United States' failure to educate its students leaves it unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role. The Task Force proposes three overarching policy recommendations: Implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security; make structural changes to provide students with good choices; and launch a "national security readiness audit" to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness. (Council on Foreign Relations, March 2012)...

Lining Up: The Relationship Between the Common Core State Standards and Five Sets of Comparison Standards - EPIC designed and conducted this study to determine the extent of correspondence (alignment) between the exit level Common Core standards and each of five sets of existing standards. The sets of standards were selected because they were either identified as exemplary state standards, were explicitly written at the college readiness level, or represented a rigorous instructional program focused on college readiness. The purpose was to see if the Common Core standards cover similar content, how broadly they cover the comparison standards, and how the cognitive challenge level of aligned content matches up. (EPIC, October 2011)...

The Common Core State Standards: Implications for Higher Education in the West - The only western states that have not formally adopted the Common Core State Standards are Alaska, Montana, and North Dakota. Additionally, Washington has provisionally adopted the standards. This unprecedented movement toward common academic standards in K-12 creates important challenges and implications for higher education. As the standards are implemented in states, higher education leaders need to be engaged in the discussions and policy changes that will result. (WICHE, June 2011)...

The Road Ahead for State Assessments - A blueprint for strengthening assessment policy, pointing out how new technologies are opening up new possibilities for fairer, more accurate evaluations of what students know and are able to do. Not all of the promises can yet be delivered, but the report provides a clear set of assessment-policy recommendations. (Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, May 2011)
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Preparation, Placement, Proficiency: Improving Middle Grades Math Performance - This brief contains highlights from the follow-up analysis to Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better. The follow-up analysis used the Gaining Ground data file. In addition, new analyses were conducted of the survey responses of the superintendents, principals and math teachers in the study to identify policies and practices that correlate with higher school achievement in grade 8 math, controlling for key school variables and students' prior test scores. (EdSource, 2011)...

NAEP and the Common Core State Standards (Part III: How Well Are American Student Learning) - This is the 10th edition of the Brown Center Report on American Education. In June 2010, the Common Core State Standards Initiative released grade-by-grade standards for reading and mathematics. As the only assessment administered to representative samples of American students, NAEP has called itself “the Nation’s Report Card” for decades. How well does NAEP match up with the Common Core? We examined public release items from the eighth- grade NAEP math test and coded them based on the grade level the Common Core recommends that the content be taught. The items registered, on average, two to three years below the eighth-grade mathematics recommended by the Common Core. Policymakers and analysts alike need to start thinking now about how NAEP and the Common Core assessments can be reconciled so as to inform, not to confuse, the public about student achievement. (Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, February 2011)...

A First Look at the Common Core and College and Career Readiness - This document provides an estimate of current student performance on the Common Core State Standards, using ACT college- and career-readiness data. The report offers both instructional and curricular support recommendations, as well as policy considerations for state and federal policymakers that can support teaching and learning of the Common Core. (American College Testing, December 2010)...

Now What? Imperatives and Options for "Common Core" Implementation and Governance - The authors asked experts from across the education sector to respond to a dozen questions on the future of the "Common Core" and synthesized the input into three different governance models: (1) Let's Become More Like France—with a powerful governing board; (2) Don't Rock the Boot—keeping the footprint as small as possible and updating the standards five or ten years down the road; and (3) One Foot Before the Other—the middle ground with an interim coordinating board promoting information sharing and capacity building among participating states. (Chester Finn and Michael Petrilli, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, October 2010)...

International Benchmarking: State Education Performance Standards - According to this report, what students are expected to know to reach proficiency levels on exams in some states may be as much as four grade levels below the standards set in the states with the most rigorous assessments. The report makes a case for states, as they collaborate on common standards, to use national and international benchmarking to make cutoff scores more demanding and improve the descriptions of what it means for students to be proficient in reading and math. (Gary Phillips, American Institutes for Research, October 2010)...

The State of State Standards--and the Common Core--in 2010 - This review of state English language arts and mathematics standards is the latest in a series of Fordham evaluations dating back to 1997. The major findings: (1) Based on Fordham reviewers' criteria, Common Core standards are clearly superior to those currently in use in 39 states in math and 37 states in English. For 33 states the Common Core is superior in both math and reading. (2) Three jurisdictions boast English language arts standards that are clearly superior to the Common Core. (3) In 11 states plus the District of Columbia the math standards are in the "too close to call" category, meaning that overall they are at least as clear and rigorous as the Common Core standards. State-by-state data are available in the report. (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, July 2010)...

Review of the Draft K-12 Common Core Standards - The Fordham Institute's expert reviewers have analyzed the draft Common Core K-12 education standards according to rigorous criteria. Their analysis lead to a grade of A- for the draft mathematics standards and B for those in English language arts. (Sheila Carmichael, Chester Finn, Gabrielle Martino, Kathleen Porter-Magee, Stephen Wilson and Amber Winkler, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, March 2010)...